A industria insiste: o problema é de percepção

«“We’re like water, like electricity – people love us, but they don’t think about us very much.” Jeff Smulyan acknowledges that radio’s got its challenges – though it’s “not newspaper”, as I’ll explain in a moment. But he thinks “our biggest problem is one of perception.” Meaning that American use radio all the time, but don’t think about it. Part of that “engage the consumer” business is to make sure that radio’s available on “every mobile phone, PDA and mp3 player within five years.” The Emmis boss says “we have to be there, we have to be 360 degrees, everywhere our customers are.” Many Nokia and Sony phones around the world already come equipped with radio, and Jeff says in this country, “We believe it’s a perfect solution to the WARN Act” about emergency notification. There are “discussions with the American cellular industry” about making radio standard in phones. As for iPods: Jeff says a radio unit is already a best-selling accessory for the iPod. (Nobody asked about AM radio, by the way: it’s got a less-certain path to inclusion in future devices.) Smulyan insists that radio “isn’t hiding from new technology, we’re driving it.” But there were direct challenges from the audience during the Q&A » (Radio-Info.com, «Wanted: Some backbone», 3,04,08